Wide-Net Weariness

It used to be easy to throw money at the traffic issue and get inexpensive and useful results. In the marketing and advertising world, we call this Media Buying… and I’m about to say something absolutely heretical about it.

If you know that term, and use it on a regular basis, you’re likely going to shake your head at me when I say this next part, but it is important…

I want us to agree to stop using the term altogether when it comes to online marketing. Yes, it does still have relevance in some circles (print advertising, television, radio, billboards, etc.) but, in the digital space, the environment is much different than it used to be.

Long ago, a business could create an offer, build a sales funnel, and then make a trip to the “traffic store” (ie. paid advertising on Google or Facebook) with a little cash, and see decent results without making a big dent in the overall marketing budget.

In those days, traffic volume was the way — clicks were cheap, so a single-digit conversion rate wasn’t a big deal because, even a 1% conversion rate still worked out economically. Who cares about wasting 99% of the ad budget when profits keep rolling in, right?

I hope you’re shaking your head “no” about that one, but, we still have to accept the truth of how internet advertising worked in those early days. Back then, the whole digital marketing system could be a mind-bogglingly chaotic mess of broken parts and still generate profit. Honestly, it was a little amazing to watch.

Similarly, back then, we didn’t need to worry about people on our list getting tired of the tactic because, we could easily buy more cheap attention.

Sadly, paid traffic doesn’t work that way anymore.

Yes, of course, the traffic store is still open for business, but the “good ‘ol days” of cheap traffic are gone, and they aren’t coming back.

Now, the clicks that used to cost a matter of cents, cost multiple dollars instead. It is safe to say that 1% conversion rates simply are not good enough in this more expensive environment.

HubSpot, one of the leaders in inbound marketing software, releases a report about the state of marketing each year. It is full of a ton of useful data but, for our purposes, I want to focus on one small section of their stats for 2021: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.

Here is what they report as the average cost-per-click (CPC) of keywords for a few select industries:

• Legal industry: Average keyword cost of $6.46. Most expensive keyword is $1090.
• Medical industry: Average keyword cost of $2.62. Most expensive keyword is $90.
• Marketing industry: Average keyword cost of $3.33. Most expensive keyword $165.
• Software industry: Average keyword cost of $3.80. Most expensive keyword is $95.
• Real Estate industry: Average keyword cost of $2.37. Most expensive keyword is $95.
• Home Improvement industry: Average keyword cost of $6.40. Most expensive keyword is $320.

Can you imagine trying to run a PPC campaign in the Legal industry!? Granted, lawyers can make a lot of money, but that doesn’t mean they want to burn it all up buying ads with a single-digit conversion rate.

Yes, out of 100 clicks, landing a single client might more than make up for the cost of the 99 who don’t convert — but, that isn’t exactly the point.

Instead, we need to ask ourselves why we should be satisfied with such a low return on our investment. Why are we still accepting that this is how the game must be played?

Wasting so much of our marketing budget like this has to be a problem, right?

We Wabbits say it is — but, in order to keep ourselves honest, we still have to acknowledge something…

Yes, there are many successful businesses that continue to use the old media buying model (offer first, bolt on traffic later). Chances are, it isn’t going anywhere, any time soon.

But, the fact remains: we’ve seen clients spend enormous sums of money using this model, and yes, it works for some businesses (usually the businesses who already have deep pockets).

The idea that we could treat ads like some sort of success vending machine is a shiny lure in the deep dark — and it is a dangerously wasteful mindset, especially for early-stage entrepreneurs.

Yes, advertising in this way may still work for a while, but the revolution is happening now. 

The businesses still holding to this tactic may show success on the outside, but if you spend enough time inside these businesses you’ll hear fear, concern, and sometimes… absolute panic.

Fortunately, there is a compelling alternative…

We know the low-cost traffic model is less viable than it has ever been. The competition for keywords, and the business models of the major ad platforms have made it so clicks are nowhere near as cheap as they once were.

We could keep playing the same game with diminishing returns, or…

Instead of creating an offer, building a funnel, and going to the traffic store (ads), we could think about where we will get traffic from before creating the offer and funnel, and then planning our ads accordingly.

Above all else, this means we ought to first spend the time and effort to match our landing page with the needs of the people who will see it.

Put plainly, we don’t make a “5-ways to save on insurance” landing page when the search term is “what to do when you’ve been in a car accident.”

Second, we need to refrain from making our ads aggressive, or over-the-top in their claims. Google and Facebook know they can survive without empowering the businesses who choose these messaging tactics, and they are actively enforcing guidelines that discourage their use.

This fact is why we recommend doing the harder thing now — by incorporating both the source, and the intent of your prospects, as integral parts of your offers and funnels. It makes everything easier later, and will produce much better results in the short-term.

The assignment for this section is to pick one offer you’re currently running, or planning to run (or a client’s offer if you’re a freelancer), and make three lists:

1. All of the reasons someone might benefit from your offer. Get very specific and force yourself to reason out the “why” behind the benefit. The The 5 Whys technique can be profoundly useful here. When you’re done with this list, mark the top 5-7 reasons with an asterisk.
   
2. Make a list of all the reasons why someone might not want to engage with your offer (not your product/service — the offer itself). As with the first list, keep asking yourself why for each reason. This list will prove more challenging than the first list, but it makes a massive difference.
   
3. The last is the most challenging of all, but the Wabbits believe in you — we know you can handle it. So… make a list of all the ways in which someone could sabotage / undermine the value your product/service provides. For someone providing marketing services to clients, this might look like:

• • “Clients second-guessing decisions because of something they read/heard online”
  • “Focusing on methods instead of results”
  • “Micro–managing the process”
  • “Relying on opinions instead of data for decision–making”

Don’t shy away from this task. If you’re feeling resistance, it often means you’ve identified the exact spot that needs your attention and discipline most.

Soon, you’re going to use the work you’ve done on these lists to write an ad. I don’t make a lot of guarantees, but I can certainly make one here…

The more effort you put into fundamental groundwork like this, the better your ad will be — so, take it seriously or your ad will suffer.

In the next section, we are going to talk about a little gremlin that is likely undermining your efforts, and how to protect yourself against it.

Proceed when you’re ready.